Read a full match report of the Champions League Group H game between Shakhtar
Donetsk and Sporting Braga at Donbass Arena on Wednesday Dec 8 2010,
kick-off 19:45 GMT.

Ukraine's 2009 UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk reached the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time with a 2-0 victory over Portuguese side Sporting Braga.

A dour match was brought to life late in the game when Romanian international defender Razvan Rat opened the scoring with the hosts nailing their place in the last 16 and top spot in Group H shortly afterwards through Luiz Adriano.

Defeat ended the visitors hopes of progressing - though Arsenal's win at home to Partizan Belgrade would have made even a Braga win in Ukraine fruitless.

Braga were already up against it as Shakhtar went into the match unbeaten in 10 games in all competitions since being hammered 5-1 by Arsenal and unbeaten in 52 successive home clashes since a defeat in October 22, 2008.

The tone of the match was set right from the whistle as Shakhtar defender Alexiy Zai clattered into Leandro Salino and the rest of the first-half was peppered with similar niggly fouls and little goalmouth action.

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It was somewhat surprising that only Braga's Miguel Garcia found his way into the referee's notebook.

The crowd at least had some encouragement at the end of the first-half as first Dario Srna forced Braga 'keeper Artur into saving his freekick and then Alan's shot had home 'keeper Andriy Pyatov earning his keep in stopping his shot.

However, the same montononous pattern repeated itself in the second-half till Rat popped up to break the deadlock and send the home fans into raptures as he fired in from outside the area.

Having got the lead Shakhtar visibly relaxed and it was little surprise when Adriano doubled their advantage.